My name is Hybrid Snoodle. I’m pretty hip looking with my army chick/punk-er getup: camouflage- t-shirt, black fishnet tights, short skirt, day-glo helmet and one of those shapely 3D bodies. It’s 2 AM and in a few hours I’ll be back to life as Robin Raskin. But for the moment I am off on Orientation Island, the newbie training ground for Second Life. Second Life is one of the largest of the online virtual worlds; it’s also one of the graphically richest and most compelling worlds in the growing number of online communities.
I jumped into Second Life to witness firsthand the allure. I depended on the kindness of strangers (and there were more than a few strange-ers out there) to help me master how to move, gesture, find clothing, chat, shout and more. Clueless was an understatement.
Upon completion of training you’re ready for the real thing, well, the real virtual thing. Second Lifers spend inordinate numbers of hours conversing, building, drinking, gardening, shopping, dancing, going to conferences and doing just about anything else that you do in the real world. They’re just doing it in a cyberworld.
And they spend real money in this virtual world. Real money buys Second Life’s currency, the Linden Dollar. An annual fee to Second Life gives you a small Linden Dollar allowance each week. Then, you need to figure out how to augment your allowance with good old ingenuity.
Why, I keep asking myself, am I spending time in Second Life land when my first life as a mom, wife, and entrepreneur is already keeping me teetering on the brink? For the moment my best answer is Sir Edmund Hillary’s “because it is there”. But for many women, Second Life is just as real and perhaps more interesting and compelling than their first.
I gave Ef Deal (note to editor: that’s her real name, sorry), a high school teacher and writer, a call because she has a very involved Second Life. As a teacher, Deal is convinced that Second Life has an important part to play in schools. Deal meets with other teachers in Second Life where they hold conferences, share ideas and network. To relax she’s built a little garden oasis where you can join her to sip tea and listen to the burble of the brook. Deal year when she had a bout with a migraine-like condition she used her private cyber getaway as a place to relax and feel better.
But all is not perfect in Deal’s garden of cyber-Eden. She’s been stalked in her home, with her photo snapped as she was changing her clothes. Once she had to evict a naked troublemaker from her property. And sometimes she learns the local customs the hard way, like the time a cyber-friend informed her she’d be treated a lot better with a new “skin”. (Second Life’s own brand of racism is what she called it.) And while you can do all of these socially acceptable things in Second Life, there’s no shortage of lap dance joints and strip clubs as wanderers seek to fulfill their sexual fantasies. You can buy S&M equipment, meet a virtual madam, or visit a brothel, but you’ll want to buy some genitalia first. (Second Life avatars have none to start.)
Second Life is far from the only virtual world out there. Women over 30 like worlds like Moove with its focus on matchmaking and meetups. ThereThere and Worlds.com are also based on social meetings. Younger women in their twenties flock to Gaia for its tools to create intricate private spaces. Kaneva (www.kaneva.com) offers play places. And no list would be complete without crediting The Sims one of the early worlds for stepping out of your reality.
Curse or Blessing?
Is heading out for a spin the virtual community tantamount to trying a shot of heroin? Like all things Internet, the virtual world has its pros and cons; much depends on who you ask and what’s your definition of time well spent. A therapist friend of mine reports that more and more of her patients are coming to see her with an online dimension to their problems. For some that’s gambling or virtual infidelity. For others it’s an addiction to some sort of role playing game. For other’s it’s their second life.
Many therapists would say that these worlds perpetuate the illusion of reality but it’s just an illusion. The social cues of the real world are missing. But others say it’s no less or more than the real world, it’s just different. They say that cultures are evolving and traditions are being formed.
Can you be addicted to your virtual life? An addiction is something you are compelled to do – free choice starts to edge out of the equation. The American Medical Association is noodling on this as I write, trying to decide whether internet addiction deserves a place in the litany of medical maladies. More research is needed, they say.
Most women I’ve talked to enjoy Second Life like going there precisely because it’s not their first life. They feel a sense of control over where they go and what they do. If they don’t like the life they’ve made, well, they can get out. If they haven’t spent hours primping who cares? They can invent a world as they imagine it, unconstrained by those real world borders. What’s there not to like?
Real World Self Control
Moderation is the key to keeping your sanity in the virtual world. Like anything else in real-life, these worlds are fine until they become obsessions and interfere with your daily life. Virtual worlds can be just as addicting as working out, shopping, TV, work, or any number of things; they become "addicting" when people lose the ability to set and maintain priorities.
Another thing to remember is that virtual worlds are out to make money. Not that making money is wrong, but you should be aware of who’s representing themselves and who’s representing some great initiative. Some 50 million people participate in a virtual world online today. To give you an idea of the size of these worlds, The Walt Disney Co. acquired Club Penguin in a deal worth as much as $700 million and Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life is rumored to be worth $750 million. And believe it or not, some Second Lifers have become real world millionaires from businesses launched in cyberspace.
.
Sidebar:
Thinking of Getting A Life?
It costs nothing to join until you want to buy something.
You can signup at http://secondlife.com/ and then download and install a small piece of software on your PC. You really need to have a cutting edge PC with fast graphics since Second Life has lots of heavy duty graphics and renderings. (The program will analyze your machine as it loads and if they say you’re going to need more ummph in your PC, you better believe it.
And don’t forget to look me up while you’re there.
How Many Is Too Many (Lives That Is?)
My name is Hybrid Snoodle. I’m pretty hip looking with my army chick/punk-er getup: camouflage- t-shirt, black fishnet tights, short skirt, day-glo helmet and one of those shapely 3D bodies. It’s 2 AM and in a few hours I’ll be back to life as Robin Raskin. But for the moment I am off on Orientation Island, the newbie training ground for Second Life. Second Life is one of the largest of the online virtual worlds; it’s also one of the graphically richest and most compelling worlds in the growing number of online communities.I jumped into Second Life to witness firsthand the allure. I depended on the kindness of strangers (and there were more than a few strange-ers out there) to help me master how to move, gesture, find clothing, chat, shout and more. Clueless was an understatement.
Upon completion of training you’re ready for the real thing, well, the real virtual thing. Second Lifers spend inordinate numbers of hours conversing, building, drinking, gardening, shopping, dancing, going to conferences and doing just about anything else that you do in the real world. They’re just doing it in a cyberworld.
And they spend real money in this virtual world. Real money buys Second Life’s currency, the Linden Dollar. An annual fee to Second Life gives you a small Linden Dollar allowance each week. Then, you need to figure out how to augment your allowance with good old ingenuity.
Why, I keep asking myself, am I spending time in Second Life land when my first life as a mom, wife, and entrepreneur is already keeping me teetering on the brink? For the moment my best answer is Sir Edmund Hillary’s “because it is there”. But for many women, Second Life is just as real and perhaps more interesting and compelling than their first.
I gave Ef Deal (note to editor: that’s her real name, sorry), a high school teacher and writer, a call because she has a very involved Second Life. As a teacher, Deal is convinced that Second Life has an important part to play in schools. Deal meets with other teachers in Second Life where they hold conferences, share ideas and network. To relax she’s built a little garden oasis where you can join her to sip tea and listen to the burble of the brook. Deal year when she had a bout with a migraine-like condition she used her private cyber getaway as a place to relax and feel better.
But all is not perfect in Deal’s garden of cyber-Eden. She’s been stalked in her home, with her photo snapped as she was changing her clothes. Once she had to evict a naked troublemaker from her property. And sometimes she learns the local customs the hard way, like the time a cyber-friend informed her she’d be treated a lot better with a new “skin”. (Second Life’s own brand of racism is what she called it.) And while you can do all of these socially acceptable things in Second Life, there’s no shortage of lap dance joints and strip clubs as wanderers seek to fulfill their sexual fantasies. You can buy S&M equipment, meet a virtual madam, or visit a brothel, but you’ll want to buy some genitalia first. (Second Life avatars have none to start.)
Second Life is far from the only virtual world out there. Women over 30 like worlds like Moove with its focus on matchmaking and meetups. ThereThere and Worlds.com are also based on social meetings. Younger women in their twenties flock to Gaia for its tools to create intricate private spaces. Kaneva (www.kaneva.com) offers play places. And no list would be complete without crediting The Sims one of the early worlds for stepping out of your reality.
Curse or Blessing?
Is heading out for a spin the virtual community tantamount to trying a shot of heroin? Like all things Internet, the virtual world has its pros and cons; much depends on who you ask and what’s your definition of time well spent. A therapist friend of mine reports that more and more of her patients are coming to see her with an online dimension to their problems. For some that’s gambling or virtual infidelity. For others it’s an addiction to some sort of role playing game. For other’s it’s their second life.Many therapists would say that these worlds perpetuate the illusion of reality but it’s just an illusion. The social cues of the real world are missing. But others say it’s no less or more than the real world, it’s just different. They say that cultures are evolving and traditions are being formed.
Can you be addicted to your virtual life? An addiction is something you are compelled to do – free choice starts to edge out of the equation. The American Medical Association is noodling on this as I write, trying to decide whether internet addiction deserves a place in the litany of medical maladies. More research is needed, they say.
Most women I’ve talked to enjoy Second Life like going there precisely because it’s not their first life. They feel a sense of control over where they go and what they do. If they don’t like the life they’ve made, well, they can get out. If they haven’t spent hours primping who cares? They can invent a world as they imagine it, unconstrained by those real world borders. What’s there not to like?
Real World Self Control
Moderation is the key to keeping your sanity in the virtual world. Like anything else in real-life, these worlds are fine until they become obsessions and interfere with your daily life. Virtual worlds can be just as addicting as working out, shopping, TV, work, or any number of things; they become "addicting" when people lose the ability to set and maintain priorities.Another thing to remember is that virtual worlds are out to make money. Not that making money is wrong, but you should be aware of who’s representing themselves and who’s representing some great initiative. Some 50 million people participate in a virtual world online today. To give you an idea of the size of these worlds, The Walt Disney Co. acquired Club Penguin in a deal worth as much as $700 million and Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life is rumored to be worth $750 million. And believe it or not, some Second Lifers have become real world millionaires from businesses launched in cyberspace.
.
Sidebar:
Thinking of Getting A Life?It costs nothing to join until you want to buy something.
You can signup at http://secondlife.com/ and then download and install a small piece of software on your PC. You really need to have a cutting edge PC with fast graphics since Second Life has lots of heavy duty graphics and renderings. (The program will analyze your machine as it loads and if they say you’re going to need more ummph in your PC, you better believe it.
And don’t forget to look me up while you’re there.